Bragging and Benchmarking

[dragonfly]

I'd rather have a $50 CRT over a $300 LCD, hey look I just got me one!

 

Sorry, you're going to have to delete your post. This thread is for bragging about good things, not on how you spend more on electricity than us!

Looks good bushie. I love the bamboo in the background.

Edited November 5, 2008 by DarkArchon

[Tek-Almighty]

* Total Frames: 1324, Total Time: 51.03s

* Average Framerate: 25.95

* Max. Framerate: 43.90 (Frame:0, 0.02s)

* Min. Framerate: 16.52 (Frame:1049, 41.82s)

 

hotfix didn't appear to change anything at all at your settings.

 

edit - it could be it didn't fix anything because i didn't do a proper uninstall of the regular drivers as i thought the hotfix was just that. turns out the hotfix installed just like a new regular driver. either way i'd still rather have my ~$320 single card than your 2 x ~$160 sli set up.

 

 

What I find interesting with this game is consistency. It is a big issue. The hitching you've spoken of is a problem and I've posted in other forums and threads here about this.

 

At times in this game, I will (with same settings but no AA) drop into the single and teens for no apparent reason, then be back up into the mid 40s and 50s. This will happen without a "level" or scene loading...just totally random and temporary (30 sec or so).

 

I think this game is far from perfect, but it does show that with ginormous textures, the 1 GB of GPU memory (DDR5 as well, compared to my DDR3) is a factor.

 

I would, however wager that other benches would put me ahead...

 

So...I would say this is a draw.

 

What you said earlier about CPU utilization being 50% is also interesting. (I am running DX9 in XP btw). Playing this game consistently utilizes both cores at about 90%...that is the same with pretty much most modern games for me.

 

HardOCP did a nice little test yesterday that tested the new Nehalem core against the current Core2Duos. Interesting results at low res, but at high res...no real difference.

 

Did you ever post up your 3dMark06 scores with the new graphics card?

 

You really should try Crysis too. In all fairness.

 

Also, you're not running that Q6600 at full capacity man!...Boost those clock speeds!

[Tek-Almighty]

i'd still rather have my ~$320 single card than your 2 x ~$160 sli set up.

I'd rather have a $50 CRT over a $300 LCD, hey look I just got me one!

 

 

 

Also, you're a dope...cuz I posted this exact same monitor in our buy, sell, trade thread like 1.5 years ago...I think I wanted $75.

 

FTW.

[Cujo]

the random and temporary drops are a lack of vid ram. see the hardocp bench graphs for examples. the cpu usage difference is probably the difference of vista to xp. though my frames are better and i have a worse cpu and supposedly operating system so i don't know how you got the win. there's also no point in running 3d mark 06 cause i know you'll beat me.

 

i have crysis warhead so we could try that benchmark if there is one. there's not much point though as any game with high aa levels and resolutions i'm going to win. that was my whole argument about sliing those cards at the time they came out. i'd much rather have 2 x 8800gtxs cause at least you won't be held back by lack of ram.

 

 

bush, i have a 21" trinitron that does 16x12 at 100hz sitting on the floor here next to my desk.

[bushwack]

bush, i have a 21" trinitron that does 16x12 at 100hz sitting on the floor here next to my desk.

I had a NIB Dimontron that would 12x16 @ 100 a few months back and then it blew up. Luck of the draw. This one does it @ 85hz and I'm just as happy, only spent $64 shipped. Seems this one has been run for a couple of years but still looks great. Sometimes things just fry. I just hope my 2 year old 50" Panny doesn't blow tomorrow then I would be upset cause I would really be out some major cash. Buying a CRT for under $100 and it dying is really no big deal.

 

I take trinitron donations too, pm me for shipping address. BTW I run a Sony trinitron at work and it's utter garbage, takes an hour to warm up and never really gets halfway crisp but my boss won't buy me a another crt much less a lcd.

[Tek-Almighty]

the random and temporary drops are a lack of vid ram. see the hardocp bench graphs for examples. the cpu usage difference is probably the difference of vista to xp. though my frames are better and i have a worse cpu and supposedly operating system so i don't know how you got the win. there's also no point in running 3d mark 06 cause i know you'll beat me.

 

i have crysis warhead so we could try that benchmark if there is one. there's not much point though as any game with high aa levels and resolutions i'm going to win. that was my whole argument about sliing those cards at the time they came out. i'd much rather have 2 x 8800gtxs cause at least you won't be held back by lack of ram.

 

 

bush, i have a 21" trinitron that does 16x12 at 100hz sitting on the floor here next to my desk.

 

 

Oh don't worry oh mighty one...I conceded your point in case you missed it: You are correct about high rez performance in newer games with AA enabled. In fact I've seen that very thing with the 4870 tested against other cards on multiple sites/forums.

 

The "draw" I was referring to, is the OVERALL performance of my 8800s vs. your 4870 over a wide range of benches and actual gaming.

 

My points were:

1) I do have noticeable, appreciable gains in many games, making them playable for me at high rez (some with AA, some not-so-much)

2) The 8800s in SLI can give the single 4870 a run for its money in certain games, and even best it.

3) For me, SLI is not a waste (even with my oh so puny 512 mb memory) because I bought one 8800 GT a year ago (late 2007) and the 2nd card was cheap and worth it to improve my performance at the settings I play at...as opposed to buying another new setup to run the latest and greatest-which I cannot afford to do every year (unlike that rich snob Bush, who buys monitors left and right on a whim! )

Edited November 6, 2008 by Tek-Almighty

[Cujo]

lol. i'm with hardocp in that the only benches that matter are the highest playable. i agree sli as an upgrade path makes sense but the 8800gt series was the first series to make that so. most other series are discontinued and hard to get by the time you actually want to do that upgrade. when i was debating new card vs second 8800gtx my biggest reasons for getting the new card were i had an intel board and the 8800gtx was still something like $300. it never got "cheap". my biggest thing with sli in recent years has been the need to buy an nvidia mobo as intel boards have been far superior.

 

btw, i still can't stand that nvidia control panel. this is an area where ati wins hands down. if it was reversed i might just have a 260 right now instead of my 4870.

 

edit - it's funny when call me "mighty one" and your name and avatar clearly indicate you believe yourself to be.

Edited November 6, 2008 by Cujo

[dragonfly]

btw, i still can't stand that nvidia control panel. this is an area where ati wins hands down. if it was reversed i might just have a 260 right now instead of my 4870.

 

+1, but I can't seem to find where you do custom settings for AA/AF depending on the application. I see where you can enable the custom settings, but not for specific applications like nvidia lets you. Am I missing something?

[Tek-Almighty]

lol. i'm with hardocp in that the only benches that matter are the highest playable. i agree sli as an upgrade path makes sense but the 8800gt series was the first series to make that so. most other series are discontinued and hard to get by the time you actually want to do that upgrade. when i was debating new card vs second 8800gtx my biggest reasons for getting the new card were i had an intel board and the 8800gtx was still something like $300. it never got "cheap". my biggest thing with sli in recent years has been the need to buy an nvidia mobo as intel boards have been far superior.

 

btw, i still can't stand that nvidia control panel. this is an area where ati wins hands down. if it was reversed i might just have a 260 right now instead of my 4870.

 

edit - it's funny when call me "mighty one" and your name and avatar clearly indicate you believe yourself to be.

 

 

What's "funny" about all of this is the fact that "tek" does not refer to "technical."

 

Tekmet was a lesser Egyptian deity, who conveyed knowledge to future generations via mathematical models and astrological signs. The "almighty" nomenclature is a reference to my old UT name (circa 1999).

 

Since I teach science and I (used to) own at UT...I figured...

 

That name is almost a decade old.

 

NEways. I refer to you as the mighty one, b/c you are a trusted and respected sage of hardware and software, and you are almost always right. And you know that. I know that. You definitely have more knowledge in compy hardware than myself.

 

I defer to you most times, but this past thread smacked of so much new hardware snobbery I figured I would give it a run and rub some people the wrong way.

 

I felt the same way when you posted up about the glories of your new Dell 2405 (can't even remember the thread), but I had nothing even comparable to contest you with. At least now, I have a couple of affordable 8800s, that do a really decent job of competing with the oh-so-uber hardware of recent days..

 

That is all

 

I still love you, tho'.

Edited November 7, 2008 by Tek-Almighty

[dragonfly]

I still love you, tho'.

 

Cujo, take what you can. I've been waiting years to hear that from him. <3

[Cujo]

hahaha.

 

tek, i wasn't even thinking tek like tech but now that you mention it. i was just referring to the almighty part. anyway, i appreciate the kind words. i try not to be too snobby as i simply can't afford it. these days i really only upgrade when a new game comes out that i can't quite play at high settings or i have someone to pawn off my old hardware on. given that i only play coop games other than css and that most of my friends/family have relatively up to date computers i don't upgrade very often anymore.

 

btw, the 2405 i bought used off a buddy who bought a 30". i still love it though.

[ebits]

Ok. I'm happy with my results now. Update - New score 16991

 

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=9184404

 

Updated processor: Q9550 E0 Stepping @ 3.4Ghz

MSI N260GTX T2D896 OC - New VGA Card

Updated Motherboard: EVGA 780i SLI

Updated xtremegamer x-fi audio card

Updated 4 gigs OCZ 1066 sli memory

 

I'm giving my old stuff - motherboard EVGA 680i, 2gig ocz mem, CPU Q6600, & Audigy 2 Sound Blaster Card, to my lil bro for xmas. Gonna try to convince my parents to give him a video card to complete the build.

Edited December 11, 2008 by ebits

[dragonfly]

You're the nice kind of older brother

 

And congrats!

[samurai nightling]

Nice? He's giving him used stuff!

[ebits]

k, updated my previous post.

 

I don't see anything wrong with giving my old stuff away for free to my lil bro. He currently has an athlon xp 3200 socket 939 with 512mb and an agp video card so he's due for an upgrade.

[samurai nightling]

lol i know. i wish i had an older brother who would of done stuff like that for me, instead i was stuck with 3 older sisters. -_-

[Tek-Almighty]

k, updated my previous post.

 

I don't see anything wrong with giving my old stuff away for free to my lil bro. He currently has an athlon xp 3200 socket 939 with 512mb and an agp video card so he's due for an upgrade.

 

 

*Claps

 

Good man. I've given away more old hardware than I've sold...but not to bro (don't have one).

 

Spread the joy. That also means he is obligated to match with you in game, and you can do some older bro. smackdowns...very satisfying, I'm sure.

[Tek-Almighty]

* Total Frames: 1301, Total Time: 51.01s

* Average Framerate: 25.51

* Max. Framerate: 43.56 (Frame:96, 2.49s)

* Min. Framerate: 16.98 (Frame:1025, 41.82s)

 

that's with the same settings exactly that you used in your 4x aa run. of course the game is not playable at these settings but you can clearly see the difference in minimum fps and avg framerate.

 

this is with my cpu running 200mhz slower and also it's an older gen e6600 compared to your newer e8400. vista 64bit as well though i'm not sure what you're running.

 

 

Wanted to revisit this from a while ago.

 

 

I read a review a couple of days back on Hardocp about how Farcry2 has been one of the games (shocking!) that actually does better in Vista with DX10 than in XP, DX9.

 

Just thought I would throw that in to see if you could/would test that. Check Hard's website.

 

Pretty interesting.

 

And, anticipating Cujo's thoughts, I'm not using that as an argument for the score delta between us in this game...

[ebits]

k, updated my previous post.

 

I don't see anything wrong with giving my old stuff away for free to my lil bro. He currently has an athlon xp 3200 socket 939 with 512mb and an agp video card so he's due for an upgrade.

 

 

*Claps

 

Good man. I've given away more old hardware than I've sold...but not to bro (don't have one).

 

Spread the joy. That also means he is obligated to match with you in game, and you can do some older bro. smackdowns...very satisfying, I'm sure.

 

 

Yeah. He's been playing Call Of Duty 5 - World At War and he got me into it too. heh

 

Ok. I Tweaked my vid card a lil more from factory overclock and got a 3dmark06 score of 17522. 3dmark06 Score

 

I will probably overclock my CPU to 3.8 or 4Ghz later on, but I don't want to deal with anything else above 40C right now. My video card already hits 60C on load and I'm probably going to get an aftermarket heatsink like the thermalright vga cooler for the gtx.

Edited December 12, 2008 by ebits

[bushwack]

Finally got to install my new MSI 260 GTX last night. Also swapped out my old Antec 500w PSU for a Rosewill Xtreme 630w. The Rosewill is a really nice unit, little heavier then my old one and stable so far. Got both shipped to the house for $235.

 

intel 2160 @ 3.4 (the little $70 CPU that could -89% overclock but kinda dated nowadays)

2x 2gb OCZ ddr2

NEW - MSI 260 GTX (like ebits, they sent me the OC edition 620/1296/2160)

NEW - Rosewill 630w PSU (yeah I know nothing to brag about but looks pretty and gets the job done)

 

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=9387280

No real gains while running 3dmark going from the 8800gt to the 260gtx.

 

Ah but Fallout 3 is a different story. With the 8800gt I was running 1280x960 high settings no AA with the HD pack getting 50-60s. 1600x1200 would drop the 8800gt in the 30-40 range. Ultra settings with no AA in the 20-30s. Now with the 260 GTX in running the HD pack at 1600x1200, ultra high settings with 4x AA and 15 anio and getting 60s. I've been running Fraps btw.

 

Was worried my 1mb CPU wouldn't have the ballz to push the 260 GTX but it doesn't seem to be the issue with Fallout 3, couldn't be happier for what I spent on this upgrade.

[VooDooPC]

[bushwack]

Voodoo, according to your 3dmark CPU score your new intel is over 15x faster then mine! You should be saving the world or something with that setup.

[samurai nightling]

All that is, is a hugely expensive computer that in actuality runs not alot faster to where you will notice the difference. I'm only saying this because I'm jealous, even if it is mostly true.

[VooDooPC]

I've noticed fairly large difference, granted I've only really tried some benchmarks, Saint's Row 2, and Crysis.

 

I was looking at Newegg and comparing the prices to my old parts, there wasn't that much difference. The motherboard and RAM were more expensive, but the video card and processor were about the same price. I guess that's the way things go when you buy computer parts. I don't think the price was that bad for what I got, compared to how expensive pre-made gaming computers are. I was looking at IBuyPower, my computer right now, minus keyboard, mouse, extra hard-drives, monitor and other stuff I didn't buy was around $700 more than I paid.

[Cujo]

that's a beast.

 

i should probably mention that i've upgraded to a e8400. got it cheap off a buddy. it runs 425x9 (3.825ghz) happily on a bit over stock volts. nice boost in css over my 3.2ghz e6600.